SummerLab students went from zero to prototype in just six weeks

This summer, Klaveness recruited six enthusiastic and creative minds from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and the Norwegian School of economics and business (NHH) after a slightly less traditional recruitment process, where potential candidates had to submit video applications.
They were challenged to come up with a digital business case that offered a greater return, with less risk, than all the other business opportunities we were looking at. In less than six weeks, they created a prototype named Foresight, with the potential to significantly reduce the cost of freight for our cargo customers.

What they did

Inspired by the lean start-up methodology they spent their first week at Klaveness understanding the various challenges that our cargo customers face, deciding on a scope and direction for their project. The following weeks were spent gathering data and examining the challenges of demurrage, and coming up with potential solutions. At the end of each week, they ran demos where they presented progress and issues to be addressed to Klaveness experts and executives.

Illustration: How the lean start-up method was applied

How they did it

When asked about their experiences with the project, it seemed the tightly knit team shared many of the same thoughts. Rudaa and Bjerkelund said, “the challenge you are facing when identifying a real problem for customers is both motivating and exciting”. While the group seemed to all agree that the opportunity to choose the scope of the summer project was challenging, they enjoyed the “try a little, learn a lot” mentality that Klaveness employ on a daily basis, and felt that it encouraged curiosity and pushed them further towards a potential solution in the project. Working in the KlavenessLab, the group quickly embraced the “think and act as a start-up” mentality.

Identifying demurrage as a problem worth solving

The SummerLab students were quick to identify demurrage (i.e., the period when the charterer remains in possession of a vessel after the period normally allowed to load and unload cargo) as a case for their project. The challenges related to demurrage are not only related to issues of predictability and cost, but also time-consuming administration. Demurrage can be the result of several factors ranging from congestion in ports, poor weather conditions and poor planning. Essentially, a lack of foresight.

Prototyping a solution – Foresight

After six intense weeks, they presented a prototype to counter these problems, that was designed to predict when and where demurrage and delays are likely to occur, with the potential to enable charterers to reduce cost, and operators to spend less time on time-consuming claims. The solution was presented with great success to the whole company through creative role-playing, and was broadcasted to Klaveness offices worldwide through video streaming.
The prototype will be part of Klaveness ongoing development of a platform enabling cargo customers to improve the efficiency and predictability of their logistics.

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